PARIS, April 13: Spain became the first country to qualify for the Davis Cup semi-finals following victory in the doubles to give them an unassailable 3-0 lead over Germany on Saturday.Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez earned their side a berth into the last four with a 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/1), 6-4, 2-6, 12-10 victory over Philipp Kohlschreiber and Philipp Petzschner in four hours, 45 minutes.

On Friday Rafael Nadal returned to Davis Cup action following an absence of a year and a half, beating Nicolas Kiefer 7-6 (7/5), 6-0, 6-3, and David Ferrer got the better of Kohlschreiber 6-7 (3/7), 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.

Spain will play either the USA or France in the September 19 to 21 semi-finals. The USA lead 2-1 after Saturday’s second day in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Over in Bremen Kohlschreiber said: “We gave it everything. We fought so hard but at the end there we just got the unlucky end of things.” His partner Petzschner added simply: “That’s all you can say. It wasn’t our day.” In Buenos Aires Argentina’s David Nalbandian and Guillermo Canas won the doubles against Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman and Robert Lindstedt 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 in two hours and 17 minutes.

The win gave Argentina a 2-1 advantage going into the final day of the tie.

In Friday’s opening singles, Nalbandian beat Thomas Johansson 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 but Jose Acasuso was unable to keep Argentina’s momentum as he quickly slumped to a 6-0, 6-4, 6-1 defeat at the hands of Robin Soderling.

Results:

Quarter-finals

U.S. lead France 2-1

Argentina lead Sweden 2-1

Spain lead Germany 3-0 (Spain have winning lead).

Russia lead Czech Republic 2-1.—Agencies